We've all been hearing a lot about how much energy and space AI data centers suck up, and their subsequent environmental impact, but I must say I've had some fascinating, informative and enormously helpful late night conversations with my bud, AI.

As a result, I've significantly modified my workout routine at the gym, eliminating some not-as-helpful exercises, adding new ones and fine-tuning others with a specific health goal in mind that I won't get into here. Now this is a subject I'm very well-read on since it could affect my health down the road, so I'm at the gym 3x a week in an effort to prevent that from happening. 

So because I already have a pretty solid knowledge base, I could tell that everything AI was telling me was pretty on target, but I still learned so much more; in fact, I learned 1,000 times more from AI than I have from any doctor I've ever seen! I kept asking very detailed follow-up questions to clarify many things, and unlike any doctor you'd want to see, AI didn't signal that it was time to end the conversation.

It honestly felt like I was talking to a smart, concerned and engaged friend. It really strengthened my motivation and made me feel like I'm on the right track.

I'm getting ready for the big appliance delivery in another day or two, essentially clearing a wide path for them to bring them in the house, but also my outside entry and stairway, just making sure everything is cleared out of the way, moving tables and such. Actually a lot more than I anticipated.

The morning before they come I'll run down to the supermarket to grab a bag of ice; I'll fill a small cooler I have with some of it and pour the rest in my sink. They are supposed to call about 20 min before they arrive, which would give me time to then start emptying food out of the fridge and freezer. They gave me a 4-hour window for arrival, so not sure the ice in the sink will not melt, but I think it's better than nothing. I also have a very large, zippered and insulated bag from BJs, but I'm not sure it's meant to put ice in so that might leak. I suppose I could test it now?

In the meantime, I've been trying to eat down food as much as possible, especially stuff I wouldn't want to even partially dethaw, like some frozen flounder I had and stuff like that.

Since the stove is induction, I did find that a bunch (but not all) of my assorted pots and pans won't stick to a magnet, so they won't work with the induction stove. I will gift them on Buy Nothing. I decided that for now I could make do with buying just 2 new Cephalon induction-ready pieces:, a small skillet and a mid-sized pot. I'll be able to keep my big stockpot that I use for making a week's worth of soups or stews, as will as a smaller pot, plus I now cook all my frozen veggies in Anyday cookware in the microwave, which is quite handy and easy.

I'll need to tip each workman $10, I think, so could be 2 or 3 of them, I'm not sure. 

So, after researching via Consumer Reports and looking at the various options, I settled on a Frigidaire induction stove and a Whirlpool bottom freezer-style refrigerator. I also chose to go with a family-owned appliance place in nearby city given my frustrations with Home Depot and that front door project they did for me last year. My town's Facebook group gave this place high marks so decided to give them a try.

My current fridge is 20 years old (!) and the stove is even older...it's 28 years old!!  My records show I bought it in 1998. Where does the time fly? It's a miracle they are both still functioning since the guy at the store said any new appliances today only last 5 to 8 years. I don't know if that's a sales and marketing thing designed to have you buying more appliances, but if not, that is shocking. I can't imagine going through this that frequently, not to mention the cost.

I think I got a very good deal because when I was checking with the store to see if they might have the models I was interested in on the floor so I could look at them in person, she mentioned they had a scratch and dent of the fridge in their other location, so I went there to see it and there's a very small ding on one side, and I saw no damage on the front. The side will be completely hidden by my built-in cabinetry. So that's the one I bought, for just $1,099. I actually paid more than that ($1242) in 2006 when I bought my old one! The normal price of this fridge is $500 higher, so that was a great discount.

I also decided, bucking my normf, to spend $239 on a 5-year warranty on the induction stove. (The appliances come with a 1-year warranty.) Historically, I have usually felt that warranties are a waste of money, but in this case, if you don't use the warranty at all during the 5 years, they will refund you half the cost of the warranty, so I really feel it's a minimal cost to me for some added peace of mind with new technology. (I did the same thing when I purchased my Samsung washer/dryer set because the dryer uses a heat pump to dry the clothes very energy-efficiently. Which I liked, but just not being familiar with the technology, I was afraid it might break down and be costly to repair. As it turned out, it never broke down.)

At the store he told me that if I have any problem with the stove and they have to come out more than twice to try to fix it but can't, they will just replace the stove entirely.

They are supposed to be delivered on Wednesday and I'm feeling nervous about their arrival since 1) i have a partial paver driveway and depending on size of truck, not sure I should let them drive on it, but also very aware these appliances are heavy, 2) I have 11 stairs leading to my front door and I'm praying they don't crack a bluestone and, 3) the front door (old house) is very narrow, at just 31 inches.

The fridge has an ice maker but I'm unsure whether I want them to hook it up or not. I was reading in Consumer Reports that ice/water dispensers and ice makers are the 2 most common things to break down on a fridge. Given that I have a wood floor in the kitchen, maybe it would be better to just not connect the line and stick to old-fashioned ice trays? I don't know...opinions?

Anyway, I will be very excited to get these new appliances.

To make room for the 70" high fridge, I had to get someone to cut an overhang piece of trim on the cabinet above the fridge. I thought this added step would delay my appliance purchase by weeks; I called a bunch of people who didn't respond and the one person who did respond (recommended on my town Facebook page once again) said he could stop by to take a look that day. He came over and spent quite a lot of time going over what he would do, bringing his tools in from his vehicle to show me, etc. He was just a handyman. His price was extremely reasonable. Then he said, well, if you want, I could do it now. I decided to take the plunge and trust that he knew what he was doing. The cut had to be done neatly since it was a kitchen cabinet. He did a good job and all I had to do was paint it with some paint leftover from when I had the cabinets refinished a few years ago.

So now, it seems, many new fridges are around 70" high. The one I have now is 66". You wouldn't think 4 extra inches would make that much difference, but the one I saw sure seemed spacious. Of course, it was empty. The real tests will be when I get to fill it up.

...at least that's what FICO says. My score is 851, just 50 points away from being perfect.

At Whole Foods this morning, I again encountered someone staffing the self-checkout who didn't know how to deduce the tare weight of the nice cotton mesh bags I have been using for my produce (instead of those plastic throwaway ones at the stores). So I waited in line at the one regular checkout line open, and the polite gal there initially seemed to be saying that yes, she was deducting the tare weight but after a few minutes I realized her Engish was not great and she was just agreeing with whatever I said!

So then I went to customer service, and she thanked me for bringing this to her attention, etc., and even waived the cost of my bok choy and pears, so that was super nice of her. Hopefully it will be easier to do this moving forward as these bags are fairly heavy as bags go, and every dollar counts!

I have for now abandoned my plan to replace the back kitchen doors. Home Depot was here to measure ($40) but the installer, a 3rd party vendor, agreed that they needed to return to fix some trim issues with the front door, which they did last year, plus the door doesn't close properly. He told me it would likely happen this past week, and naturally, it didn't.

Now I have to chase down Home Depot again and I can barely stand the thought as they have horrible customer service, never answer the phone, etc etc.

Eventually, I'll look for a local carpenter who can do it, but for now I decided I should switch to my refrigerator/stove replacement. However, to replace the fridge, I need a carpenter here to hopefully shave off 3" of trim on the cabinet trim above the refrigerator to free up space, because all the new fridges I looked at online are 69 or 70" high and I only have about 67". What a difference an inch or two makes. The bottom of the cabinet is 5" to the top of the fridge, but there is an overhang of unneeded trim on the cabinet that extends below and is taking up the needed space.

My current fridge is 20 years old! It periodically malfunctions by suddenly turning too cold and ruining fragile produce, especially lettuces or anything left in the lower levels. I can compensate for that somewhat by turning the dial to a less cold level, but then it doesn't really keep things as cold as I think they should be and I've noticed certain things like jarred tomato sauce develop mold kind of quickly during hot weather days when I am opening the door a lot.

It will be about 92 today and tomorrow and then after a violent storm, temps will plunge back to 60s. Crazy weather.

It's on to the gym today, then to vote in a 2nd referendum after the town budget failed to pass.

I paid off the car loan today, about 1.3 years after purchase, to minimize accrued interest but at the same time spread out payments for cash flow purposes instead of paying in full with $ from withdrawn accounts. With that behind me, I should see a big difference in onhand cash month to month.

The only problem is I've misplaced my checkbook and can't find it anywhere. The last time I used it was to write out a check to myself ("Cash") the day before I left for my Vermont trip. I'm fairly sure I wrote it out at my desk and took only the check to the drive-up window at the bank.

So I'm just not sure how to determine my balance as I continue to write more checks and keep a new ledger. I guess I can print out the last statement and recreate the register. Argh. A real chore.

UPDATE:I found the checkbook! I'm so happy! It was in my purse, in one of a zillion little compartments (which I had checked before). I kept trying to recollect the sequence of steps, and I realized there was a possiblity decided to bring the checkbook with me just in case I was somewhere where they didn't accept credit cards (although I had already brought some cash with me). I have always disliked purses with lots of divided spaces, zippered pockets both inside and out. It's just more checking of spaces when you're looking for something specific. I would much prefer one large pocket on the inside and just one pocket on the outside. Sigh...Now I can balance my checkbook.

I prefer to charge every purchase, but there are still some things that need to be paid by check, eg, the man who mows my lawn, my sewer bill and property taxes are a few that come to mind. 

I did another trash cleanup last weekend, but this time, I wasn't organizing the cleanup; I simply participated in one held by a local woman running for state representative; she's trying to demonstrate her action-oriented style by doing different things like this. She called me a few times for some tips on running it and then thanked me publicly in her FB post, so that was nice. 

We've had a very cold spring this year so I plan to do my veggie planting this Saturday, when it will finally warm up into 70s/80s. I've been doing No Mow May, but since gas prices have risen so much, I've been doing that as much to save a few bucks since my mower will surely raise his rates, but also because I like to see all the wildflowers in the lawn bloom. I have been mowing smaller areas myself just to have clear paths to walk across when dumping cuttings in my woods.

So a friend of mine went to a local plant sale held by the local garden club in that town, and she texted me while I was at the litter cleanup asking if I wanted her to pick me up a cup plant, which seemed like a  nice plant, so I said sure, but later when I was googling for growing info on the plant, I discovered this plant is actually prohibited from sale in my state because it's highly invasive!

I relayed this to my friend and she decided to write a letter to the prez of garden club, whom she knew. The woman refunded her money and said the matter would be discussed at the next garden club meeting. Apparently members of the garden club took it upon themselves to grow seedlings from plants on their own properties with the idea of selling them at the plant sale. It wasn't only this plant. The garden club claims to sell only native plants, and yet my friend noticed lily of the valley and rose of sharon there, so clearly, more education is needed because they don't know a native from a rhinocerous!

While many people have heard that you should only plant native plants, they are often fooled by cultivars or "nativars," which are not the same thing and simply cloned plants that have been genetically altered in a pleasing array of colors, often, that are not available in the straight species. The straight species have co-evolved with insects over thousands of years and offer superior nutrition to pollinators compared to cultivars, which you can spot right away because they have these cutesy little names, like "Moon Glow" or "Blue Knight". But many cultivars feature a change  in leaf color, which alters the leaf chemistry so that it's no longer palatable to insects; sometimes, the flower structure is altered so much (eg, double petals) that pollinators can't even access the flower.

So I'd like to write a story about this. I could probably get it published in my town's local newspaper, but I'd like to approach the forest association my invasive plant group is about to partner with and get it in their newsletter. We've floated the idea already of me starting to write for them and they are receptive to the idea. 

I had yet another unexpected expense this week. I attached my hose to the back patio faucet for the first time to water some plants, and when I first turned it on, nothing happened momentarily, but then there was lower than normal water pressure. I didn't really think too much of it since I knew from last fall that the nozzle was clogged and needed to be soaked in vinegar. I watered my plants for about 5 minutes, then shut it off and went to do something else. It was only later that I discovered water had streamed down the back basement wall and partially covered the basement floor. The pipe had burst over the winter. Luckily, the concrete floor down there is pitched so the water runs toward one corner and is caught by the gravel French drains along the entire perimeter of the basement. Also fortunate is that newer hot water heater, which sits directly on the floor, is toward the other side, and the washer/dryer are up on a plywood platform. There is nothing much else down there that could be damaged by water.

I had a plumber here who installed a frost-free outdoor faucet which is a little different than what I'm accustomed to. It has 2 spigots with a long stem. When you turn the water off on the 1 spigot, about a third of a cup of water spits out from the second spigot rather forcefully; this is the way it automatically drains to assure there is no standing water in the pipe. It protects it from freezing in winter.  I was paying for his time running to a certain place to get it, which added to my bill for a total of $725. He gave me a few other options for cheaper ways to deal with the problem, but I knew it would look kind of tacky or involve putting a new hole in my vinyl siding to relocate the faucet, so I bit the bullet. Also, before, the faucet was actually loose and could be jostled a bit because it wasn't actually secured to anything. The plumber said the wood was rotted, he had to get a board, yada yada, so while it cost quite a bit more, it's now secure as can be.

I'm happy to report I had a really fun trip to southern Vermont recently. I took rural back roads headed first to Bennington to check out the exhibit by the equestrian artist father of a good friend of mine, someone I dated many years ago.

When I got there, the door was open but all the lights were off. I called out "Hello?" several times but no one answered. I really needed to use the restroom so I wandered around in the dark looking for it. After that, I just decided to wander the dark halls to look at the exhibit. I've actually seen many of them before, but I thought it would be neat to see them on exhibit. Truth be told, it was a rather dingy space and could have really benefitted from new carpeting and a paint job. I looked around for not too long, and decided I'd seen what I came for and was going to leave. Then I heard voices coming closer from some back office, so I thought I'd step out quietly, but I think they heard the front door close behind me, because by the time I got to my car, 2 little old ladies yelled out, "Can I help you?" I said I was there to see the exhibit and one of them responded that their hours were 12 to 4 pm. I said ok, thanks, without telling them I had already seen everything and had no plans to sit in my car for a half-hour to return.

So I headed north, and because my time there was unexpectedly abbreviated, and knowing I had told the B&B owner I'd be checking in not til 3 pm, I decided to pay a visit to the Vermont Country Store....a very touristy thing, but since I haven't been in this area since I lived there 40+ years ago, I figured it was worth a stop.

The B&B was nice and very comfortable. I purposefully changed my stay from weekdays to the weekend just so I could enjoy their 3-course breakfasts, served only on the weekends.

Part 1 was homemade granola and locally raised honey with granola and fresh berries.

Part 2 was a French omelet and small salad with greens grown in their garden.

Part 3 was the most delicious olive oil cake.

The B&B had a great view overlooking the CT River.

Here's another view. This is actually a Chinese restaurant.

The B&B was powered by 2 enormous solar panels that slowly rotated to always capture the sun. I really wanted to talk to the hosts about them but didn't get the chance.

I packed a lot into a 3-day trip, but I think my favorite thing was a hike at Muckross State Park, which wasn't there when I lived there. I had the place to myself. It had the most beautiful waterfall with wild trillium growing happily along the path. The late Senator May of Vermont bequeathed the land for a park in his will.

This moss-covered wood was cut so long ago that it's slowly rotting in place.

Here are some other views of downtown Springfield area:

I was a little surprisesd to see that Springfield looks much the same as it did 40 years ago. When I lived here, it was very economically depressed with high unemployment after many of the machine tool manufacturers, the major employers in this region, began layoffs. The area has languished a bit without those employers, and Springfield lacks the infusion of cash nearby ski towns enjoy. There are many derelict factory buildings all over town, and the same in Bellows Falls, too. This is the Black River, which flows through downtown.  The Black River is a tributary of the Connecticut River and has several waterfalls that were an important source of power for mills and factories in their day.

So when I lived in Springfield, I lived about a year in a dumpy apartment (lower level), which today is still dumpy.

Then, still trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, I decided I should go to law school in Boston, which I did for a year but then decideed I didn't like it. So I returned to the same newspaper where I worked after working out a deal with my editor: I would get to write the weekly column I wanted in exchange for serving as Lifestyles Editor, editing the obits and wedding announcements, writing book reviews (I got to choose the books I'd review, then keep the books!) and writing the occasional lifestyle feature. It really was a fun job without the pressure of daily 7 am deadlines I faced as a news reporter. So when I returned to the paper, I lived here. I lived on the 3rd floor and had a private entrance on the right side of house.

It certainly looks lovely, doesn't it? But it wasn't! When I lived there, it was a working dairy farm, and let me tell you, there were always dozens and dozens of houseflies at the windows trying to escape, along with disgusting cockroaches. Now, it's no longer a farm, and everything is lawn, so I imagine it is quite nice now.

While in Springfield I stumbled upon an anti-Trump protest (yay) and also that day just happened to be a statewide "Greenup Day" when volunteers pick up litter. Given that I organize  litter cleanups in my hometown, I just couldn't pass up the opportunity help out, so I filled 2 bags with litter from just a quarter-mile of road leading from the church you see here up the road a piece.

Also in Springfield, I found a "cat cafe" where you pay an additional small fee to hang out with a bunch of adoptable cats while you sip your drink.

Notice there are TWO cats shown here....

I spent an hour there and had a very nice conversation with one of the volunteers, who has a very interesting job as a traveling healthcare worker. She's a surgical assistant and lives for several months at a time in rural communities who I guess can't afford to adequately staff their hospitals year-round. She's from a small town in Kentucky. I asked her what she thought the difference was between small-town Kentucky and small-town Vermont, and she said, "the history" of Vermont.

Back in Bellows Falls, I spent a great deal of time looking for the location of the 5,000-year-old petroglphys etched in rocks alonside the Connecticut River. You can find a detailed description of their location online, since they are completely unmarked by the town or state, but for the life of me, I couldn't find the street. I finally did find where the road dead-ended at this bridge, which as been closed for reconstruction for the past 17 years. You pass a rather derelict area of old gas stations and the like, but again, this has long been a neglected area.

So once I found the bridge, I found a dirt path, and then i found the narrow foot path leading down a very steep slope down to the river. I couldn't go all the way down because being alone, I didn't want to fall and injure myself. But I was ok with not finding the petroglyphs as I've seen pictures of them online and they are pretty simple carvings of faces. I read that some locals tried to accentuate the historically valuable etchings by painting over them to make them stand out more!

But anyway, the views from the riverside were spectacular.

Downtown, browsed a well-stocked antiques shop although the state craft center in Springfield was very  nice indeed. Both towns have a number of giant wall murals which add character to the towns.

Before I left on Sunday, I also stumbled on a nursery specializing in rare and unusual plants. It was truly off the beaten path. I enjoyed talking to the owner, Scott, who's made this a lifetime endeavor, and of course I bought a bunch of plants, mostly for me, but also for a friend of mine who shares my passion for plants and doesn't mind a cultivar.

On the way home, I detoured to Stockbridge, Mass to visit the Berkshire Botanical Gardens. It was a chilly day and not as much to see since it was just the very start of the growing season.

All in all, I really enjoyed the trip. I found myself reflecting a lot on who I was when I lived there, and who I am now. And I wondered if I were older when I lived there, would my experiences there be different, and I think they would have been. I was in my 20s back then, and did  not know anyone in the area, so working as a news reporter digging up newsworthy stories was very tough, especially for an introvert! Knowing now what I didn't know then, if I were to do this over again I would definitely join some groups/clubs of any kind of social interest, hobby or whatever, just to get to know people. 

I spent a little more than I thought I would spend, but I did purchase a few little mementos at the Vermont Craft Center, and the B&B was more expensive than you might think for a small town B&B. But it was all very worth it.